(AFP) Clashes involving Ethiopia’s two largest ethnic groups killed more than 300 people over several days last month, a federal official has said.
The violence began March 19 and unfolded in two zones of the Amhara region, said Endale Haile, Ethiopia’s chief ombudsman.
The Amhara region is dominated by the ethnic Amhara group — Ethiopia’s second-largest — but one of the affected zones, Oromo special zone, is populated mainly by Oromos, the largest group.
“Our findings show that the number of dead are 303, injured people are 369 and there were 1,539 burnt homes,” Endale said.
His office collected data from local officials and members of the security forces and plans to submit a report on the violence to lawmakers on Monday.
The dead were mostly killed by gunfire and included civilians and members of the security forces, Endale said, though he could not provide a breakdown or details on how the violence started.
He declined to say how many of the fatalities came from each ethnic group.
“We are not willing to identify based on their ethnicity. They are human beings, so we should consider them as human beings rather than classifying them as Oromo and Amhara,” he said.
